IOR/R/15/6/53

The file contains correspondence in the form of letters and reports between the Political Agency, Muscat, the Political Residency, Bushire, the Government of India Foreign and Political Department, New Delhi, and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Taymur bin Fayṣal bin Turki al-Bu Sa‘idi regarding the latter’s abdication and the financial consequences of it.

A few issues were discussed in the correspondence, among which were the following:

• the length of the Sultan’s stay in Muscat and India each year
• allowing the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to hold the house at Dehra Dun, India, in his own name
• the establishment of the Council of Ministers in Muscat in 1920
• the appointment of a new financial advisor to the Sultan instead of Bertram Thomas
• the consequences of the abdication to the Sultan’s three sources of incomes, namely: the Zanzibar subsidy, the Arms Traffic subsidy, and his personal allowance from the Muscat State
• the financial situation in Muscat and its reflection on the Sultan’s personal allowance
• the reduction of the Sultan’s monthly allowance from Rs. 10000 to Rs. 5000
• the Sultan’s refusal to return to Muscat
• the arrangement of meetings of British officials and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to discuss the issue of abdication
• reports on Saiyid Sa‘id bin Taymur’s illness in 1931

The majority of the correspondence is dated 1929-1932, the earlier start date given to the file is due to translated letters (ff 16-17) of the Sultan regarding the establishment of the Council of Ministers in Muscat in 1920.